The present invention relates to a system and method of initial aligning wheels of vehicle steer-by-wire systems in real time.
In steer-by-wire systems, mechanical linkages between the steering wheel and the front road wheels have been eliminated. Moreover, the mechanical linkages between the two front road wheels are also eliminated in some steer-by-wire systems. Instead, two independent road wheel electric motor actuators are installed on the vehicle, wherein each actuator independently actuates one of the front road wheels. This allows the two front road wheels be able to move independently from each other. Moreover, a steering wheel electric motor actuator is also used to connect to vehicle steering wheel for providing the familiar steering feel and the steering command to the road wheel.
There is a need for a steer-by-wire system to have control of the road wheels and steering wheel of the vehicle to implement initial alignment. The initial alignment between the steering wheel and two road wheels should be implemented in an initial state when the steer-by-wire system is powered on and is initialized. Before the aligning wheels of steer-by-wire system, angular positions of the steering wheel and two road wheels are not determined because there are no mechanical connections.